Daily brownouts reduced to 3 hours in Mindanao

DAVAO CITY—Even as the Mindanao grid remains to be on a critical status as severe drought induced by the El Niño weather phenomenon continues to affect the major hydropower plants, daily power interruptions have been cut from five hours to three hours.

The Aboitiz-owned Davao Light and Power Co. (DLPC) said the power situation within its franchise had improved after one of the 150-megawatt (MW) units of its coal-fired power plant returned online on Monday from an emergency shutdown due to a boiler tube leak on April 6.

In its latest bulletin, DLPC said the duration of the rotating power outages would be decreased to two to three hours, or two hours at most during the peak period (8 a.m. to 8 p.m.) and one hour during the off-peak period (7 a.m. to 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. to midnight).

It attributed the power interruptions to the compounding effects of both natural and mechanical issues. Earlier, it noted the worsening effect of the El Niño to major hydropower plants in Mindanao, recent emergency outage of two Agus plants, and the April 6 shutdown of one of the units of a coal-fired power plant owned by Therma South Inc.

Starting May 1, DLPC expected an additional supply of 50 MW to ease the situation.

“With thin to no reserve capacity in Mindanao, any operating unit that will go on emergency shutdown will result immediately to rotating brownouts,” the company said. Karlos Manlupig, Inquirer Mindanao